Revolutions in agriculture or in industry or in social custom differ from political revolutions, if only because they are not cataclysmic. They are not, as are many political revolutions, characterised by a growth of discontent which, suddenly focused, erupts swiftly to overthrow what has gone before. Rather, they are processes of slow change taking place over years and detected after such a lapse of time because they have inexorably altered what were accepted and traditional ways. Their origins are complex; their progress involves a variety of activities which interact and which vary in pace. Admittedly, and in common with political revolutions, charismatic individuals sometimes become identified with particular facets of the overall change, but seldom can these slow progressions be attributed solely to the zeal and endeavour of single protagonists or pioneers. The course of agricultural change in Britain over past centuries illustrates these complexities and helps to place the considerable changes in farming and the provision of food which have taken place in the past 60 years in a realistic perspective.

Agricultural revolutions in Britain

It is usual to call the considerable agricultural and agrarian changes that took place 200 years ago ‘The agricultural revolution’, the use of the word ‘The’ emphasising the importance that is usually attached to it and perhaps implying that it was unique. The revolution of the eighteenth century, although undoubtedly a major one, was not, however, unique; many changes of considerable magnitude had taken place in the centuries and millennia that preceded it.